Ma....ma.....ma.....ma

I have my first real Mandarin lesson tomorrow afternoon. I am really much more nervous about this endeavor than I would have been a year ago. I met with the teacher on Friday, and she probed what I already knew. In a year of trying to pick up Mandarin as I go along (hey! I know the Sign of the Cross! Doesn't that count?), I have also developed bad habits in my pronunciations. I knew that my tones were a mess. I flatten all my vowels. However, I learned on Friday that my consonants were also problematic. Not just the consonants that would normally pose a challenge (like q, ch, zh, x, j), but ones that should be easy and obvious (like m, b, p).

We'll see how this goes.